~ Pontifex minimus

The Forces of Madness Make a Classic Blunder

The four modules of the doublet, laid with their ‘right’ side facing the ground and their ‘wrong’ side facing the camera. Something is wrong with this picture.

While getting involved in a land war in Asia and going in against a Sicilian when death is on the line are classic blunders, most scholars agree that quilting a garment before you have made sure that you really have one right and one left breast is a good one too. Fortunately, that is a mistake which just costs time and thread to fix.

Solution below the fold.

The parts of the doublet after correcting the error, assembling the sleeves, and sewing the right and left front quarters in place

A last post in this series will contain photos of the finished garment and thanks for everyone who helped with research, sewing advice, moral support, or heretical ideas about how this style of clothing should fit, but until I had corrected this blunder, I wanted to sew not blog.

2 thoughts on “The Forces of Madness Make a Classic Blunder”

You’re welcome Todd. I don’t know if I will ever make something so complicated by hand again (certainly not until the dissertation is ready!) … but I think it is worth sewing a few things by hand to get a sense of how much work went into clothing before sewing machines and jet looms.